radical

1. 1.

   (used of opinions and actions) far beyond the norm

   “extremist political views”

   “radical opinions on education”

   “an ultra conservative”

   Synonymsextremistultra

   Similarimmoderate
2. 2.

   markedly new or introducing radical change

   “a revolutionary discovery”

   “radical political views”

   Synonymsrevolutionary

   Similarnew
3. 3.

   arising from or going to the root or source

   “a radical flaw in the plan”

   Similarbasic
4. 4.

   of or relating to or constituting a linguistic root

   “a radical verb form”

   linguistics

5. 5.

   especially of leaves; located at the base of a plant or stem; especially arising directly from the root or rootstock or a root-like stem

   “basal placentation”

   “radical leaves”

   Synonymsbasal

   Antonymscauline

   botany

Other forms of radical

plural

radicals·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about radical

What does radical mean?

radical means "(chemistry) two or more atoms bound together as a single unit and forming part of a molecule". That is the primary sense; the word has 11 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in radical?

radical has 3 syllables: rad-i-cal. The stress falls on "rad". In IPA it is /ˈɹædəkəl/.

What is another word for radical?

Close synonyms include group, chemical group, free radical, root, root word. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of radical?

The recorded antonyms are cauline.

Is radical a common word?

radical is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.